JOHN GRISHAM

John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.

The U.S. government and publishing titan Penguin Random House have exchanged opening salvos in a federal antitrust trial.

The biggest U.S. book publisher’s plan to buy the fourth-largest for $2.2 billion represents a key test for the Biden administration's antitrust policy.

The upcoming trial of a former Massachusetts mayor first elected at the age of 23 will showcase the dramatic rise and fall of the wunderkind accused of stealing from his investors and extorting marijuana companies.

Atwood and Grisham are among several authors participating in a novel about the pandemic. The Authors Guild Foundation announced Thursday that it had reached a deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media to publish Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering." (AP Photo)NEW YORK – One of the first novels about the pandemic will be a collaborative effort, with Margaret Atwood, John Grisham and Celeste Ng among the writers. Novelist and Authors Guild President Douglas Preston came up with the idea as a way to raise money for the foundation. Atwood is editing “Fourteen Days” and helped recruit a wide range of contributors, including Dave Eggers, Ishmael Reed, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, Mary Pope Osborne and Emma Donoghue.

This combination photo shows former secretary of state Hillary Clinton at the premiere of the Hulu documentary "Hillary" in New York on March 4, 2020, left, and a portrait of author Louise Penny. Clinton is teaming up with Penny on the novel State of Terror, out Oct. 12, 2021. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, left, and Jean-Francois Brub via AP)NEW YORK – One of the world's better known fans of mystery novels, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is now writing one. “Writing a thriller with Louise is a dream come true," Clinton, who has expressed admiration for Penny and other mystery writers in the past, said in a statement Tuesday. Hillary Clinton, secretary of state during Barack Obama's first term, has written a handful of nonfiction works.

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021 that 60-year-old Tommy Ward remain imprisoned while the state appeals the lower court's ruling. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP)OKLAHOMA CITY – A man who has spent 35 years in prison in a murder case featured in the book and television series “The Innocent Man” must remain incarcerated even after a judge ordered his release, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Tommy Ward, 60, to remain imprisoned while the state appeals the lower court’s ruling that he be released. Fontenot, Ward's co-defendant, was ordered released by a federal judge in 2019, and the state is also appealing that order. After the details of both men’s confessions were proven untrue — Haraway’s body was discovered years later in a different location and had been shot to death not stabbed as the pair had said — a state appeals court ordered new trials.

LOS ANGELES Wilford Brimley, who worked his way up from movie stunt rider to an indelible character actor who brought gruff charm, and sometimes menace, to a range of films that included Cocoon, The Natural and The Firm, has died. Brimley also starred in Cocoon: The Return, a 1988 sequel. Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust, Bensky said in a statement. He was one of a kind.Barbara Hershey, who met Brimley on 1995s Last of the Dogmen, called him a wonderful man and actor. He always made me laugh.Though never nominated for an Oscar or Emmy Award, Brimley amassed an impressive list of credits.